Senator—“Hello”!

It has been said before but I will say it again. Federally elected officials just don’t comprehend the role of government.

Today I read a comment by Senator John Hoeven.

More than two years ago I persuaded former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to initiate a new USGS study of the Williston Basin to stimulate more private-sector investment in infrastructure like housing, hotels, retail stores and other services to meet the needs of a rapidly growing western North Dakota. This new USGS study further confirms and reinforces the fact that the Williston Basin is a sustainable, long-term play warranting strong private-sector investment for decades into the future.

As laudable as encouraging private investment in job creation is, it does not justify theft. When the government steals resources from one person to create wealth for another person it is theft.

I presented a question to Senator Hoeven in a response to his self-congratulatory Facebook post. Do I have authority to take from his resources in order to accumulate more of mine own? I answered him, and say to you, “I think not!”

Federal elected officials continue to fail to recognize that government is an extension of my authority, not the master of it. The Constitution states “We the people” created the government. Honest Abe said this a nation of, for, and by the people. The government ought not presume to have authority greater than that which has been given them by the people. Now, it may shock some of my wise conservative friends, but even the people do not have legitimate authority to take from one to specifically enhance the quality of life of another. Theft is not a natural right of man.

Our dear and beloved federal elitists fail to understand this simple concept. Just as I have no authority to take another man’s life, I also have no right to take another man’s property without his consent. That is not a hard concept to grasp.

Maybe, just maybe, the God of Moses got it right when He said “Thou Shalt Not Steal!”

In America we prattle on about being a capitalist society. The over-educated elected in Washington bray the loudest about it. Yet, it is such an elementary concept they continue to fail math class because their calculations simply don’t add up.

America was not built on “capitalism”. It was built on the idea of a free market. Every nation that is, was, or will ever be will be capitalist. Capital is nothing more nor less than the resources of production. Capital is the seed that grows to wheat, it is the wheat that is ground to flour, it is the flour that is baked to bread, it is resource of life.

It is who owns and controls the resources (capital) that determines how the seed goes from soil to bread. In a free market system private individuals own and control the capital. Each barters, for money or bread, directly with others to increase one form of capital in exchange for another form.

Some societies operate as government owned and control capitalist systems. I won’t even engage in the debate that those systems have failed miserably. Other societies operate under the premise of private ownership and government control. More failed and inefficient systems.

The United States of America prospered, generally, when it was operating a free market. But, as self interests and pursuit of power began to influence the government this great nation became stifled. What generated that stifling was greed. Some men saw others accumulate more resources (capital) and demanded it for themselves…outside of a barter system. They chose through unionization to restrict the trade of their resources (labor) for other resources. They also sought to expand the role of government and became redistributionists. When that happened the system began to have leaks and chasms of decay, generally.

Today, one cannot swing a dead cat in Washington without hitting some elected officials that believes the role of government is to redistribute capital!

I come back to my question, what right does a government have beyond my own rights? The answer is, “none”.

Senator Hoeven, and most of his colleagues are infected with the disease of illogic. They believe that somehow the government has authority to steal corn from Kansas to study turtles Mississippi. That is theft of capital. Is it well intended? Most likely it is. Does it balance the scales of economic justice. Perhaps it does. Is it wrong in a nation historically free market. Without a doubt.